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AN APOLOGY FOR RATIONAL AND EVANGELICAL CHRISTIANITY. 

A 

I 

DISCOURSE 

AT THE * tl 

DEDICATION OF A NEW CHURCH 

ON 

CHURCH GREEN, SUMMER STREET, BOSTON. 

TO WHICH ARE ADDED 

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 

BY SAMUEL COOPER THACHER. '& of , 



boston: 

PRINTED^ AND PUBLISHED BY T. B. WAIT & SONS. 

1815. 



r/ 



PREFACE. 



I owe to the Society, with which it is my happi- 
ness to be connected, some explanation of my delay 
in complying with their request. The following 
discourse was not originally designed, and does 
not now seem to me well adapted for the press. 
From the extent of the subject, the views which it 
offers are unavoidably very general. The neces- 
sity, also, of preserving, as far as might be, the 
distinction between a sermon and a dissertation, 
has occasioned a want of fullness in the reasoning 
and illustrations, which — though pardonable, per- 
haps, in what is intended only to be spoken — may 
not meet the same indulgence, when submitted to 
the inspection of a reader. I had concluded, for 
these and other obvious reasons, to decline to com- 
ply with the wishes of my friends. This determi- 
nation, however, has been changed by the informa- 
tion I have recently received, that some parts of 
this discourse have been much misapprehended, 



4 

ami misstated. It is now published, as it was 
originally delivered, except some verbal correc- 
tions, and a few unimportant additions. 

I am sensible that it may appear presumptuous, 
to have undertaken to speak in the name of my 
brethren. The motive, which justified it, howe- 
ver, was well known to those to whom the dis- 
course was addressed; and if it should chance to 
meet the eye of any others, they will of course 
perceive, that, though the plural form is used, 
nothing more than the sentiments of an individual 
are given. I have endeavoured, it is true, to 
represent accurately the opinions of that class of 
ehristians, with which I habitually think ; but it is 
proper distinctly to say, that no part of this dis- 
course was communicated to any person before its 
delivery ; and that, therefore, the writer is alone 
responsible for the correctness of the statements 
it contains. 

In speaking of the principles advanced in this 
discourse, as the characteristicks of particular 
christians, it will not be supposed, that these 
christians claim to be the exclusive adherers to 
them. Nothing more is meant, than that these are 
some of the general maxims, which they agree in 
receiving, and which they adhere to, it may be, 
with something more of fidelity and consistency 
than others. So far from arrogating an exclusive 



5 

regard to them for any single body of christians, 
I take great pleasure in believing, that they are 
held substantially by a large proportion of the 
members of all Protestant communions, whether 
adopting the distinctive names of Lutherans, Cal- 
vinists,* Episcopalians, or Arminians. There is no 
general principle, indeed, taken in this discourse, 



* I am permitted, I fear, to claim the authority of those 
christians, who are known by the name of High Calvinists, 
or by the kindred name of Hopkinsians, for but few of the 
principles, which I have advanced. Except in our own coun. 
try, however, the number, I believe, is small of those, who 
make the chief peculiarity of Calvin a fundamental article 
of faith. I subjoin a quotation on this point from the Rev. 
Robert Hall ; who will, J presume, be universally admitted to 
be the most distinguished ornament of what is called the 
orthodox or evangelical party in Great Britain. In speaking 
of the evangelical clergy, he remarks: "we cannot dismiss 
this part of the subject, without remarking their exemplary 
moderation on those intricate points, which unhappily divide 
the christian church ; the questions, we mean, in relation to 
predestination and freewill, on which, equally remote from 
Pelagian heresy and Antinomian licentiousness, they freely 
tolerate and indulge a diversity of opinion, embracing Cal- 
vinists'and Arminians with little distinction; provided the 
Calvinism of the former be practical and moderate, and the 
Arminianism of the latter be evangelical and devout. The 
greater part of them, we believe, lean to the doctrine of gene- 
ral redemption, and love to represent the gospel as bearing 
a friendly aspect towards the eternal happiness of all to whom 
it is addressed : but they are much less anxious to establish a 
polemical accuracy, than to " win souls to Christ." Strictures 
on a work entitled M Zeal without Innovation." p. 35, 
Lond. 1809. 






6 

lor which there may not be produced the authority 
of persons of each of these churches, and those 
too among the most illustrious for learning and 
piety. 

After these remarks, I need scarcely observe, 
that, when the phrase "rational Christianity" is 
used in the following discourse, it is by no means 
to be considered as applicable merely to a compa- 
ratively small number of christians, who hold par- 
ticular opinions on the metaphysical nature of our 
Lord. Such an appropriation of that phrase I 
conceive to be entirely unjust: and to breathe some- 
thing of the same narrowness of spirit, which these 
christians are not backward to censure in others. 

But neither bigotry nor liberality are exclusively 
of any sect ; and all men ought to guard against 
the tendency, which the pride of spiritual superi- 
ority produces, to think that our own opinions are 
identified with the conclusions of reason, the dic- 
tates, of conscience, and the commands of God. 

The term "apology," in the title of this discourse, 
is used in its original sense as nearly synonymous 
with " defence" or " vindication." AnoAoriA, the 
learned reader will recollect is employed by St. 
Peter in the text. 

Feb. 9, 1815. 



DISCOURSE. 



1 PETER, III. 15. 

BE READY ALWAYS TO GIVE AN ANSWER TO EVERY MAN THAT ASKETH YOU A 
REASON OF THE HOPE, THAT IS IN YOU, WITH MEEKNESS AND FEAR. 

Christianity is a religion addressed to the rea- 
son of man. Look around you, my friends, on 
this temple, which we have now assembled to 
dedicate to the purposes of christian worship, and 
see how every thing proclaims, that the religion, we 
profess, makes its appeal only to our nobler nature. 
Here is no pomp of a gorgeous and imposing cere- 
monial. Here no altar smokes with the blood of 
victims ; no incense fills the air with its perfume. 
No priest is here claiming a mysterious sanctity, 
as the inspired depositary of the will of heaven. 
No daring hand has here attempted to represent to 
the senses the awful person of the Being we adore; 
or even to suggest through them to the imagination 
the most distant image of his ineffable glory. All 
here is simple. All is intellectual. All announ- 
ces, that the (rod, whom the christian worships, is 



8 

a spirit, and is to be worshipped only in spirit and 
in truth. The gospel, we see, disdains to owe its 
influence to the fears of a superstitious temper, or 
the enthusiasm of a heated fancy. It requires of 
us only a reasonable service. It demands no tri- 
bute, but the homage of the understanding. It 
accepts no incense, but the secret sigh of the broken 
and contrite heart. Our bodies, purified from all 
guilty passions, are the only victims, it calls us to 
present on its altars ; and it is the fire of divine 
charity alone, which descends from heaven to con- 
sume our spiritual holocaust. 

Christianity, then, is a religion addressed solely 
to the intellectual and moral nature of man. Our 
text implies this truth, when it directs us never to 
decline to submit the grounds of our christian hope 
to the tribunal of enlightened reason. It teaches 
also, that we are not to be indifferent to the man- 
ner, in which our fellow men regard our religious 
sentiments ; and this obligation, 1 conceive, ex- 
tends not only from christians to unbelievers, but 
from one christian to another. There exist — it is 
but too well known — among the different commu- 
nities of christians, some peculiar modes of regard- 
ing the truths of the gospel ; and it is fitting, 
according to the spirit of our text, that we should 
be ready to justify these modes of thinking to our 
fellow-believers. The occasion of entering, for 
the first time, this sacred edifice, has seemed to me 
a more appropriate one, than usually occurs, for 
offering some explanations of what may be thought 
the peculiarities of those, who worship here, as 



9 

well as of a large class of christians throughout 
the world. They have been, I am persuaded, not 
a little misunderstood ; and some observations — 
though of course very general ones — on the lead- 
ing features of them, may help to lessen, if not to 
remove, some unhappy prejudices, and to enlarge 
the mutual charity of christians. Nothing, howe- 
ver, can be more remote from my intentions, than 
to assail the conscientious belief of others, except 
so far as this may seem to be necessarily done by 
simply vindicating our own. Sorry indeed should 
I be, if the sounds first heard within these walls 
should be those of animosity ; or should seem to 
breathe any note, which — however otherwise un- 
worthy — might not accord with those celestial 
strains, which first announced peace on earth and 
good will to men. 

I. Allow me then to make a preliminary obser- 
vation ; and it is this : that we humbly trust, that 
we do agree with the great company of the disci- 
ples of our Lord in every age, in resting on the 
same foundation, on which all christian faith is 
built. We believe — as they do — in one great Au- 
thor, Supporter, and Controller of the universe, in 
his nature infinite, in all his attributes perfect, in 
all his perfections harmonious — the object, the only 
object, of the supreme worship, reverence, grati- 
tude, trust, love of all his creatures. We believe — 
as they do — that this glorious Being has sanctified 
and sent into the world his beloved Son, to redeem 
our race from iniquity ; to secure to them the hope 
of pardon 5 to elevate the human mind by the iuflu- 

% 



10 

ence of truth and virtue ; and thus to ripen it for 
higher powers and more exalted blessedness in 
heaven. We believe, that on him the spirit of the 
xilmighty was poured without measure — that he 
received all that was necessary to make him our 
perfect guide, our all-sufficient Saviour, and that 
to all who repent, believe and obey, he is made of 
God wisdom and righteousness and sanctification 
and redemption. His words are to us, as the words 
of God; his commands, as the commands of God. 
We honour the Son, as we honour the Father, who 
sent him. The truths, which he taught, we believe 
to be contained in the holy scriptures ; and we 
take them as the authoritative record of the facts, 
principles, doctrines, precepts and sanctions of our 
religion. We receive and freely rest our hopes of 
salvation on what they teach us, as constituting 
christian faith and practice. In professing this be- 
lief, as we do in sincerity and without the smallest 
reserve, we hope we may put in a humble claim to 
the name of christians ; and may unpresumptuously 
say with the apostle, if any man trust to himself that 
he is Christ's, let him of himself think this again, 
that as he is Christ's even so are we Christ's. We 
doubtless may err- — who may not err? — in our in- 
terpretations of the sacred volume ; but, if it be so 5 
it is our understandings, we trust, not our hearts, 
which are in fault. One thing, at least, will hardly 
be denied, that however much the religious struc- 
tures of different communions of christians may 
vary in form, proportion, congruity, harmony and 
beauty, the foundation and the materials of all that 



11 

is serious and practical in their Christianity must 
be essentially the same, as that, which we have 
adopted. 

Undoubtedly however— though we hope we do 
thus fundamentally agree with all the sincere dis- 
ciples of our Lord in every nation and age — we 
have some characteristic^: and not unimportant 
modes of viewing the theory of our religion. Our 
interpretations of the scriptures, any more than 
those of any other single body of christians, do not 
agree in all respects with those of all the rest. On 
these peculiarities I proceed now to remark. 

II. 1. I conceive, that the chief characteristick 
of those christians, in whose name I now presume 
to speak, arises from the view we take of the senti- 
ment contained in our text and other similar passa- 
ges of the scriptures. Christianity we believe to 
be, in the truest sense, a rational religion.* The 
truths it unfolds conform, we think, to the intellec- 
tual and moral nature of man — are consistent each 
with itself ; with one another ; with the dictates 
of conscience, and with the maxims of truth, which 
the universal reason of man acknowledges and 
respects. They harmonize, in one word, with the 
best conclusions and results of those faculties, 
which God has given us for discerning truth. — Let 
not our meaning, however, be misunderstood. We 
neither say, that the truths of Christianity were, or 
ever would have been discovered by reason, unas- 
sisted by revelation — nor that the objects, to which 
these truths relate, can now all be comprehended 

* Note A. 



IS 

by reason in all their extent — nor that they are all 
necessarily founded on facts, which conform to 
analogies within our present knowledge. Least of 
all does reason, in our view of it, advance any 
claim in opposition to revelation. We say only, that 
reason is, equally with revelation, the gift of God ; 
and that both are given jpr purposes perfectly con- 
sistent and harmonious.* We say, that — as reve- 
lation continually appeals to reason for its proofs, 
and its conformity to sound reason is an important 
part of its evidence — a clear and decided re/pug- 
nance and contrariety to reason in any of its doc- 
trines would be so far an argument against its truth. 
We therefore believe, that the truths of the chris- 
tian religion do contain and can contain nothing, 
which enlightened reason after full and serious 
inquiry does not approve. The gospel and a sound 
philosophy, right reason and a revelation from God 
must be in perfect harmony, can never really and 
essentially disagree. 

It is difficult to conceive, how any one should 
fail to see that this must be so, who considers the 
nature and use of our rational faculties. They are 
the organs for admitting all truth into the mind ; 
and an intelligent belief of revelation is no more 
possible without the use of reason, than sight is pos- 
sible without the organ of vision. Religious faith, 
then* instead of being opposed to reason, is in truth 
the highest exercise of reason. This is practically 
felt to be so true, that, when men profess to believe 
what is opposed to reason, it is only by bringing 

* Note B. 



13 

themselves to imagine, that they have in some way 
found a sufficient reason for renouncing the use 
of reason. And thus we see the extreme of scepti- 
cism and the extreme of credulity meet and unite 
in the common absurdity of using reason to destroy 
all confidence in reason. — But our Maker, we may 
be sure, will never contradict himself in his own 
works. Having given us reason, as the faculty for 
discerning truth, he will do nothing, which shall 
confound and subvert the uses of his gift. He will 
not say one thing to us in nature, and a different 
thing in revelation ; but as the truths both of rea- 
son and revelation flow ultimately from the same 
source, they will be consistent with themselves and 
with every other truth. 

But indeed, my friends, to assert seriously, that 
Christianity is not consistent with the best dictates 
of reason, what is it but to offer to (rod's word the 
deepest dishonour? It is to degrade its evidence 
to a level with that of the religion of Mahomet, or 
the dreams and fictions of the impostors and fana- 
ticks of every age.* It is in effect to say, that its 
proofs depend on the internal sensations of every 
one who receives it : a ground of belief— in which 
we are always exposed to the grossest self-decep- 
tion — which we certainly can never exhibit to other 
men, and therefore can never obey the direction of 
the apostle in the text — and which may be pleaded 
alike, and is alike unanswerable, whether urged 
by wisdom or folly, learning or ignorance, honesty 
or fraud. — Such a representation was never learn- 
ed in the school of the Author and Finisher of our 

* Note C. 



14 

faith. The New Testament is full of appeals to 
our perceptions of right and wrong; and every 
argument it contains is in itself a distinct refutation 
of the idea, that our faith is to supersede the uses 
or falsify the conclusions of reason. Every mira- 
cle our Lord performed, every prophecy to which 
he referred, was a call on those around him to 
exercise their reason. No. The religion of Christ 
is one, which not only permits, but requires us to 
prove all things, and hold fast only what is true. 
Let it not then be reproaehed with elevating itself 
on the ruins of human reason. Libel it not, I 
beseech you, by so unworthy a charge. Betray it 
not into the hands of infidelity by throwing away 
those arms, which the most exalted reason rejoices 
to supply for its defence. 

But do we then raise the authority of reason so 
high, as to deny our need of the aids and irradia- 
tions of the holy spirit of God ? I trust, my friends, 
that this is far from being true. Our principles 
leave this doctrine unimpaired to be believed in 
its most consolatory form. We say only, that these 
gracious influences will be vouchsafed to us, in 
consistency with the other gifts of God, by the in- 
strumentality of regular means; and that they will 
guide and exalt, not supersede and confound our 
rational faculties. — Do not object to us still, that 
our views nourish a temper of pride and presump- 
tuous confidence in human reason, fatal to a hum- 
ble sense of our dependence on God. Our depen- 
dence on God is absolute and entire. If any man 
will show me in what way this sentiment can be 



15 

more fully expressed, I will adopt his language 
and renounce my own. We differ from those, 
who make this objection — if we differ from them 
at all — only in going farther than they do in our 
belief of this truth. — We believe, that we depend 
entirely on God for ordinary as well as extraordi- 
nary blessings ; not merely for the special influen- 
ces of his spirit ; but also, quite as much, for every 
"moment 9 s use of the faculty of reason. — But, indeed, 
if the comparison is forced on us, we may venture 
to ask, which belief is most likely to enkindle a 
spirit of presumption — that we have received the 
gift of reason in common with our fellow beings, 
and that the means and aids for enlightening and 
elevating it, are alike open to all, who sincerely 
seek and faithfully use them ? — or that belief, which 
teaches a man, that he is the selected favourite of 
heaven, and enjoys those miraculous infusions of 
the divine spirit, which are denied to the honest and 
intelligent exertions and prayers of his fellow men ? 
In truth, when I think of this latter opinion, I am 
constrained to say, that it seems to me, that it may 
claim any other praise sooner, than that of being 
founded in or promoting the humility of the gospel.* 
%, On grounds like these, and in the sense now 
explained, we believe, that Christianity is a rational 
religion. This belief produces an anxiety, that, in 
all our statements and exhibitions of its doctrines, 
their rationality should be made apparent. This 
is, in part, the origin of that difference of phrase- 
elogy and of those different modes of stating the 

* Note D. 



16 

same truths, which are often remarked, and which 
form perhaps the most striking difference between 
us and some of our fellow christians, who feel this 
anxiety less strongly, than we do. We vindicate 
this peculiarity by the consideration, that it is re- 
quired by the constant changes, which are taking 
place in the force and meaning of all language, and 
by that obscurity, with which time is ever incrusting 
the words and illustrations of elder days. It is an 
obsolete phraseology, we think, which causes many 
sentiments, essentially true and perfectly simple, 
to be involved in a dark, scholastick, and, as it 
seems to us, needless perplexity.* It is the cause 
why many phrases are so often repeated with no 
distinct ideas attached to them, and a complete 
negation of meaning is often wrapped up and con- 
cealed, even from ourselves, in a consecrated dia- 
lect. Beside these considerations, however, we no 
doubt think also, that many of the changes we make 
in the mode of stating certain sentiments give a 
more strictly correct representation of the true 
meaning of the scriptures. And it would be 
strange, if no improvements of this kind had been 
suggested by all the lights which the learning and 
piety, which have been employed on the sacred 
volume for a century and a half, have struck out. 
It would indeed be passing strange, if it were true, 
that it was in the middle of the seventeenth 
century, amidst the tumult and extravagance of a 
civil war, when every other branch of knowledge 
was comparatively in its infancy — that this was 

* Note E. 



±7 

the time, when the statement of every point in 
theology received its final improvement and per- 
fection.* I freely own, that this assertion, which 
implies that the human mind — instead of being 
only in its twilight — then touched its highest point 
of theological illumination, seems to me scarcely 
less extravagant, than to say, that the period, when 
the maxims of civil government were finally settled 
for all future generations, was in the country and 
at the height of that revolution, which has recently 
convulsed the world to its centre. 

3. But though the differences Tjetween us and 
our fellow christians are chiefly verbal, there are 
others, which may be thought to be more real. 
There are some doctrines, on which many good 
men lay a great stress, which we do not teach as 
any essential part of christian faith. These doc- 
trines relate to modes of the divine nature, and 
divisions of the divine essence ; to the theory of 
the divine attributes, and the grounds and extent 
of the divine tlecrees ; to the origin and transmis- 
sion of sin ; to the methods of God's operation on 
the human mind ; to the final reasons of the oecouo- 
my, and the ultimate results of the government of 
God. Most of these speculations evidently involve 
questions of the most abstruse metaphysicks — 
questions on which mankind have for ages dis- 
puted — and in which the most etherial spirits, 
after vainly excruciating their understandings, 
have " found no end in wandering mazes lost." 
All that is any way practical with regard to these 

* Note F, 
3 



18 

speculations we embrace and teach; for it lies 
obvious to the humblest mind.* For the rest, we 
conscientiously think, that much of them will for 
ever be beyond the reach of the human understand- 
ing, till it is enlarged in a higher world ; and at any 
rate, that the scriptures either decide nothing with 
respect to them, or only indistinctly allude to 
them, or else decide against such views of them 
as are often received. We however certainly can 
never think, that any thing essential to christian 
faith or practice depends on the decision of these 
questions. We "think it a thing in itself most un- 
likely, that a religion, designed, like the gospel, 
to be preached to the poor, the humble and the 
illiterate quite as much as to the metaphysical and 
learned, would have any of its fundamental princi- 
ples connected with these bewildering inquiries.! 
It seems to us the most beautiful feature of our 
religiou, that it is so perfectly simple, intelligible 
and practical. We examine the preaching of our 
Saviour, and find that his addresses to mankind 
were all of the plainest character — and can we err 
when we follow his divine example ? — We admit 
in the fullest manner the perfect right of our fellow 
christians to think otherwise on these points; but 
we are not able to follow them in what seems to us 
their perilous and unauthorized speculations. We 
ask them to forgive us, when we say that the light 
of revelation seems not to our eyes to extend its 
guiding rays into these regions of perplexity. We 
bog them to permit us to remain on the open, plain 

* Note G. + Note H. 



19 

and illuminated ground of our common Christianity; 
and rather to thank God with us, that we can go 
on so far together, than to refuse us their charity, 
because we advance beyond it more timidly and — 
may it not be ? — more cautiously than they. 

4. From this view of the practical character of 
the gospel, and the consequent absence from our 
preaching of these abstruse speculations, arises 
what is esteemed another of our charaeteristicks. 
We take the great end of all religion to be, simply, 
to make men good ; to produce, in the language 
of the apostle, chanty out of a pure heart, a good 
conscience, and faith unfeigned. The goodness here 
nieant is, indeed, of the most exalted character ; 
including not only the duties of self-government 
and social benevolence, but also, most assuredly, 
our supreme duties to God. It is the goodness, 
which was exemplified in its perfection by our 
Lord ; it is that goodness which is to fit man for 
the communion of the spirits of the blessed through- 
out eternity.* This moral influence on the human 
character it is, which seems to us to be the end of 
all religion. It is that, to which every thing, 
which revelation unfolds, is only subsidiary an4 
ministerial. The whole substance of Christianity, 
therefore, seems to be contained in three words : 
the nature of christian duty ; the means of per- 
forming it ; our motives to use them. The whole 
theory of christian preaching, then, must be to 
exhort men to christian duties, in the use of chris- 
tian means, and by the excitement of christian 

* Note I. 



motives. We have no conception of the meaning 
of religion, if it mean any thing different from this. 
We do confess, therefore, that we feel bound to 
remember, in its plain sense, the solemn charge of 
Paul to Timothy: "it is a faithful saying, and 
these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that 
they that have believed in God might be careful to 
maintain good works ; these things are good and 
profitable unto men." — It is St. Paul, who is 
speaking, my friends, not we ; and with his war- 
rant, and with the example of a greater than Paul, 
even his Master and our Master, we ought to think 
it a small thing to be judged of man's judgment. 
We must consider the epithet, which is sometimes 
applied to our discourses, that they are " moral 
sermons," to be an epithet of honour, not of dis- 
grace. They must share it in common with our 
Lord's own sermon on the mount. 

5. It is another characteristick of our views of 
religious truth, that they do not lead us to expect 
single and instantaneous effects from its influence, 
so much as a gradual and permanent operation. 
We deny not, that there are real examples of 
sudden conversions from sin to holiness. We bless 
God for them. But this is not, we think, the usual 
history of mankind ; nor do the representations of 
the scriptures lead us to expect it will be so. We 
do not doubt, that good effects have sometimes 
been produced on particular persons, by throwing 
them into a sudden spasm of terrour or agony of re- 
morse. But in general we think, that men become 
virtuous — as they become wise — by constant and 



21 

gradual accessions, and not by sudden impulse or 
miraculous illumination. Our preaching, therefore, 
does not aim, so much as that of some others, at 
immediate excitement. We hope, by the blessing 
of God, to produce a more calm and steady and 
rational and — therefore, we think, more probably — 
permanent influence on our hearers. Our manner 
is consequently less impassioned ; in the sense, 
that we do not so constantly touch the springs of 
terrour in the human breast. We are not insensi- 
ble, that this manner can never be so acceptable to 
that class of hearers, who delight to be powerfully 
moved ; who expect from a sermon the effect of a 
tragedy ; and are accustomed to think, that a 
strong emotion is a great virtue. But though we 
are sorry to be thought unprofitable preachers by 
any of our fellow christians, we yet think, that 
popularity may be purchased too dearly. We seri- 
ously doubt the general and permanent good effects 
of applying a constant stimulus to the stronger 
passions of the soul. It is apt, we fear, to rouse 
them at first to unnatural, and not always very 
valuable exertions ; and at last to expend their 
energy and wear out or palsy their power. It is, 
however, a question of fact. We do not court, 
but we certainly do not decline a comparison, as 
to the practical efficacy of the two modes of preach- 
ing, considered in their effects on the whole charac- 
ter, through the whole of life, of all the different 
classes of mankind. 

We confess, then, that our principles lead us to 
the exercise of caution in our addresses to the pas- 



22 

sions. If this were the place for speaking of our 
individual failings, we should not hesitate to admit, 
also, that — from the difficulty of finding the exact 
medium between extremes, which is the great task 
of human life — this caution may sometimes be carri- 
ed too far, and degenerate into a coldness and want 
of becoming earnestness. May God forgive us, 
wherever this is in any degree the case. There is 
nothing in our principles, however, which justifies 
any want of zeal, or excludes at all the most affect- 
ing appeals to the best feelings of the human heart. 
Our views of it, we trust, do not rob religion of 
any of its salutary power to move and raise and 
melt the soul. The character of God appears not 
to us less merciful or less glorious, than to our 
brethren. Christ seems not less endued with all- 
sufficient power to enlighten, redeem, and exalt his 
sincere disciples ; nor are his labours and his 
sufferings for us less entitled to our most grateful 
and affectionate remembrance. The aids and con- 
solations of the holy spirit of God seem not to us to 
be less freely or less impartially offered to all who 
sincerely and humbly ask them, than they do to our 
brethren. Sin appears not to us less opposed to 
our nature, and to the benevolent designs of God; 
nor does its connexion with misery in every stage of 
our being seem less evidently to be the established 
and eternal law of the divine government. He, 
whom such motives and such views as we embrace 
will not warm and excite to the love of holiness 
and dread of sin, and to ardent and persevering 
efforts to produce that love and that dread in those^ 



whe are committed to his care — must be impas- 
sive to the influences of all that is most animating 
and awful, all that is most touching and sublime in 
human conceptions. It surely does not follow, 
because we think, that views of religion, produced 
and nourished by fear chiefly or alone, will be igno- 
ble and degrading, that we are less — in truth we 
ought to be move — induced to address the principles 
of love, hope, gratitude, and, in its due degree, fear 
itself, together with all the sympathies and affections 
of our moral constitution. We regard it as a very 
incomplete and erroneous view of human nature, 
as well as of christian theology, to suppose, that 
the best effects of our religion are to be felt, or the 
highest style of moral character to be produced, 
without the use of the affections. The glory and 
beauty and perfection of the christian character 
will never be seen, except where all the faculties 
of our moral and intellectual nature are called 
into action to produce and adorn it — where reason 
makes itself tributary to affection, where faith is 
warmed in the heart, as well as enlightened in the 
understanding — where a sense of duty and a sense 
of interest, philosophy and sensibility, prudence 
and enthusiasm — while they temper and regulate 
each others tendencies — unite in prompting to sub- 
lime and disinterested benevolence to man and 
supreme love and devotion to God. 

I might remark on some other and less peculiar 
charaeteris ticks of those christians, in whose name 
I have spoken, but it is necessary that I should 
forbear. I will only repeat my hope, that the 



m 

observations, which have now been hazarded, will 
be taken, as 1 am sure they are meant, in the spirit 
of entire good will towards those, who differ from 
ns. I profess towards them a real respect. I see 
among them very many bright and true exempli- 
fications of the christian character. I bear them 
witness, that they have a zeal towards God. I 
doubt not, that their modes of representing truth 
may have a real use to some classes of minds. It 
may be one of the reasons, why the sacred writings 
are not framed more systematically and technically, 
that a provision is thus made for such a difference 
in the mode of regarding some points of secondary 
importance, as is adapted to the differences in the 
mental constitution and habits of mankind. This 
is a view, which 1 acknowledge to be refreshing 
and consoling to my mind, when I consider the 
different sects, into which the christian world is 
divided. It enables me to see without pain the 
success of those, whose views of christian truth 
vary a good deal from my own ; regarding their 
exertions, as I am thus permitted to regard them, 
only as diversities of operation under the influ- 
ence of the same spirit — At least, however, there is 
nothing in the differences, which have been noticed 
in this discourse, which need to loosen, far less to 
rupture the bonds of christian charity or christian 
fellowship between us and our brethren. They 
are such differences as might even be made sub- 
servient to mutual improvement. If a spirit of 
mutual candour and friendship could be cultivated, 
if we would concede to each other the great Pro- 



%5 

testant right of individual judgment, and if, while 
contending earnestly for what we believe to be 
truth, we would remember our own weakness and 
fallibility, we might contribute to guard each other 
from that tendency to rush into extremes, to which 
we are all so liable. After all — whatever may be 
said or thought in the heat of controversy — it is 
impossible, that any one should seriously doubt, 
that all christians have ultimately the same obj&et. 
For have they not all the same interest, the same 
eternal interest ; and what imaginable motive can 
there be, with the immense majority of them, to 
attempt to deceive others or themselves ? How can 
it be thought, that men, acknowledged to be men of 
integrity on every other subject, should wantonly 
and madly desert their principles on that subject 
onlv, which is of all the most momentous ? Would 
to God that the time might at length come, when 
christians would apply the same maxims in judging 
of each other's motives and views in religion, that 
they feel to be just in every other case ! 

But with whatever feelings the views, which w© 
take of the nature and design of the gospel, are 
regarded by others, we are not at liberty to alter 
them. We beg our brethren, who think hardly of 
us for our opinions, to believe, that we have adopt- 
ed them in the honesty of our hearts. We conscU 
entiously think, that a rational representation is 
the true representation of God's word. We think, 
the genius of the age requires, that it should be 
made, if Christianity is to retain any hold of the 
greater part of thinking and cultivated minds. It 

4 



36 

will not do, that, when every other department of 
human knowledge has been in constant progress, 
the science of theology alone should remain with 
only those statements and illustrations, which were 
given it during the darkness of the middle ages. 
It is not sufficient to reply, that the belief of many 
good persons in some of the most important truths 
is so connected with long established prejudices, 
that they will be in danger of abandoning these 
truths along with these prejudices. This is an 
argument for caution and moderation in our exer- 
tions ; but it is no good argument to relinquish 
them. If Luther and his followers had listened to 
it, the reformation would not have blessed the 
world ; and the timid spirit of Erasmus would 
have purchased its repose at the expense of the 
loss of the opportunity of emancipating mankind 
from ignorance and errour. — But it is not right, 
that our fears should be all on one side. While 
we respect the prejudices of the unenlightened, we 
ought not to despise the serious objections of the 
thinking part of mankind. The consequences of 
presenting to them only such views of religion, as 
revolt alike their understanding and moral sense, 
must be, a real, though, it may be, a secret aban- 
donment of all faith in its authority. A double 
doctrine will thus be established^ of thinking with 
the initiated and talking with the vulgar — a sys- 
tem, which, as has been finely and truly said, "is 
beyond any permanent condition of human society 
destructive of ingenuousness, good faith and probi- 
ty ; of intellectual courage and manly character; 



27 

and of that respect for all human beings, without 
which there can be no justice or humanity from the 
powerful towards the humble/** 

Having then such views of the importance of the 
principles, which we have embraced, and believing, 
as we do, that they correspond with the results of 
the researches of the ablest and most pious inquir- 
ers after the truth as it is in Jesus, the path of our 
duty is plain before us. We must follow it at any 
hazard. If we did not, the holy confessors of our 
faith in every age would disown us, the intrepid 
genius of the reformers would disdain us, the 
sacred shades of our fathers would reproach us for 
shrinking from our duty and disgracing our illus- 
trious origin; and where — oh where should we 
appear, when called to give up our great and final 
account ! 

It is with these views of christian truth, that we 
now enter this temple to dedicate it to Almighty 
God. And may he grant that — so far as they are 
just — they may here be preached and heard, till 
this lofty spire bows under the hand of time, and 
these massive walls crumble into their primitive 
dust. 

III. It would correspond, I believe, to a general 
custom on occasions like the present, if we were 
now to look back to the ancient history of this 
church. But our church has no history, beyond the 
short and simple annals of the ministrations it has 
regularly witnessed. When however I say, that it 
affords no materials for publick history, I conceive 

* Sir James Mackintosh's review De L'AlIemagne par 
Mad. de Stael. 



fed 

(hat I give to it the highest praise. For history, 
we know, records not on its blood-stained page the 
peaceful triumphs of religion in private life, but is 
too often the register only of intrigue and warfare, 
of the crimes and enterprises of bad ambition. It 
is now nearly a century of years, since a temple 
was first erected on this spot, which had been con- 
secrated by the piety of our fathers from time 
immemorial to this sacred use. It was not esta- 
blished in the spirit of schism ; but was the result 
of the regular overflow of other churches, many of 
the members of which contributed towards the 
expense of the undertaking. The progress of this 
church has been as harmonious, as its origin was 
peaceful. It has never been found in collision 
with any other church. Its spirit has always been 
liberal. Its terms of communion have never been 
narrow and exclusive. Its ministers have always 
been cathoiick in their feelings. The list of them 
is begun by the venerable Checkley, followed by 
the affectionate Bowen, the interesting and eloquent 
Howe, the acute and profound Everett. I could 
add another name, but my heart is forbidden to 
utter its feelings. The house which was first 
erected here, after having stood for ninety-seven 
years, has now given place to that in which we 
meet. Erected., as it has been, in most disastrous 
times, I may be allowed to consider it as a noble 
monument of the spirit of our citizens ; a pledge 
that they consider religion as their best refuge in 
calamity ; and that the last sentiment they are 
willing to lose, is that of respect for her worship.* 

* Note K. 



29 

Come, then, fathers, brethren, friends, christians* 
let us again invoke the presence and blessing of 
the most high God. We solemnly consecrate this 
temple to Him — to the religion of his Son, who 
died for us — to the spirit of evangelical piety, 
charity and truth. Henceforth may the angels of 
celestial love take up their dwelling in this sanc- 
tuary, and ever may they carry from it to the mer- 
cy seat of heaven the tribute of humble, grateful, 
devoted hearts, the offerings of sincere and ac- 
ceptable worshippers ! — Ye holy walls ! hence- 
forth sacred to the religion of Jesus — peace be 
within you ! For my brethren and companions 
sake, I will now say — peace be within you ! Ne- 
ver may ye be polluted by hypocritical prayers — 
never may ye echo with heartless praises — ever 
may the words of truth be dispensed within you 
in their simplicity and uncorrupted purity — never 
may ye witness the love of Christ commemorated 
here with unthankful remembrance, or his cause 
dishonoured by faithless professions ! Here may 
all the best influences of the gospel — all its rege- 
nerating, sanctifying and elevating influences — 
ever be felt ! And long after the voice, which 
now feebly sounds within you, is hushed in si- 
lence — long after these worshippers shall all have 
passed away from the earth — may their children 
and their children's children to the latest genera- 
tion here taste the joy and peace of believing, and 
find that this is unto them, as it has been to their 
fathers, none other than the house of God and the 
gate of heaven ! 



NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 

A. 

The general principle of the conformity of Christianity to 
the conclusions of enlightened reason will hardly be disputed 
by intelligent Christians. It is a ground, which has always 
been taken by the roost able and judicious defenders of the 
gospel. It was very fully surveyed and illustrated about the 
middle of the last century, by Dr. Doddridge, Dr. Benson, 
Dr. Randolph, and Dr. Leland, in the controversy occasioned 
by the deistical tract entitled Christianity not founded on 
Argument' 

B. 

il Reason is natural revelation, whereby the Eternal Father 
of Light and Fountain of all Knowledge communicates to man- 
kind that portion of truth, which he has laid within the reach 
of their natural faculties. Revelation is natural reason en- 
larged By a new set of discoveries, communicated by God 
immediately, which reason vouches the truth of by the testi- 
mony and proofs it gives that they come from God. So that 
he, that takes away reason to make way for revelation, puts 
out the light of both ; and does much the same, as if he would 
persuade a man to put out his eyes, the better to receive the 
remote light of an invisible star by a telescope.' , 

Locke's Essay, B. iv. c. 19. 

C. 

"To those especially, who seek for conviction in certain 
inward feelings, which the warmth of their imaginations repre- 
sents to them as divine, I would recommend the serious consi. 
deration of this important fact : that the foundation, which 
they lay for the Bible, is no other than what the Mahometan is 
accustomed to lay for the Koran. If you ask a Mahometan, 
why he ascribes divine authority to tl\e Koran, his answer is: 



82 

because, when I read it, sensations are tfxcited, which could 
not have been produced by any work, that came not from God. 
*#*Butdo we not immediately perceive, when the Mahometan 
thus argues from inward sensations, that he is merely raising a 
phantom of his own imagination ?***The Christian, who thus 
argues, may answer, indeed, and answer with truth, that his 
sensations are produced by a work, which is really divine, 
while the sensations excited in the Mahometan are produced 
by a work, which is only thought so. But this very truth wilL 
involve the person, who thus uses it, in a glaring absurdity. 
In the first place he appeals to a criterion, which puts the Bible 
on a level with the Koran : and then to obviate this objection, 
he endeavours to show the superiority of his own appeal, by 
presupposing the fact, which he had undertaken to prove." — . 
Prof. Marsh's Lectures. P. II. L. III. p. 51 — 52. American 
edition. 

D. 

I am anxious, that the principles, which have been advanced 
under this head of the discourse, should be taken with the 
explanations and limitations, which I have endeavoured stu- 
diously to annex to them. I would particularly beg it to be 
observed, that it is by no means denied, that the objects, to 
which the truths of revelation relate, may contain many things 
not fully comprehensible by reason. Indeed there is per- 
haps no object presented to us either by nature or revelation, 
which the human mind can be said entirely and perfectly to 
comprehend in all its relations and properties. The humblest 
flower, that springs up under our feet, contains that, which the 
most exalted philosophy can only teach us to wonder at and 
admire. Still, however, so far as a true philosopher asserts 
any thing with regard to its existence, structure, growth, or 
any of its properties, powers, or connections, he perfectly 
understands what he asserts, and employs language only in 
such a sense as may be intelligible to others. In like man- 
ner, all truth, intended to be conveyed to the human mind, 
must be intelligible in itself, and conveyed in language iutel. 
ligible by those to whom it is addressed. The truths of reve- 



38 

lation form no exception. They are expressed in words,which 
are the signs of human ideas, and which, therefore, can only 
be employed to convey the ideas, which men have annexed to 
them. We may, of course, form ideas of all the propositions 
contained in the scriptures. But of that which is unintelligi- 
ble, the mind can take no cognizance — can have no belief — 
can give to it no assent. We may make the form of a propo- 
sition with respect to it ; but it cannot have the reality of one. 
It is nothing — nothing but idle words. We need not scruple 
to say, that to believe a proposition, which either includes a 
contradiction, or else has no assignable, no intelligible meaning 
whatever, is a thing which is in its nature impossible. The 
scriptures undoubtedly can contain no such proposition. 

It is evidently very consistent with these remarks, to be- 
lieve, that revelation may indulge us with only very limited 
and imperfect views of many interesting truths. We now see 
through a glass, darkly. But these intimations, we are to 
remember, are all that revelation designs to give us, because 
they are probably all we are now capable of understanding, 
or all which can fitly be made known to us in a state of 
probation. We are not permitted to consider them merely as 
food for our conjectures, or materials from which we are to 
construct our own precarious systems. I do not mean, that 
we are bound, or that we are able wholly to repress the curi- 
osity, which they so naturally excite; but we are to beware 
how we place our conjectures on a level with the truths, which 
the gospel unfolds. When treating of truths, as the doctrines 
of scripture, and the fundamentals of Christian faith, we are 
to stop where the scriptures stop. We are* not to be wise 
above what is written. 

Let us take, as an example, what the scriptures declare as 
to the efficacy of the death of our Saviour. There is perhaps 
no proposition on this subject, in which so many Christians 
would agree,. as that of Paley;* "that our Lord's death and 
sufferings are spoken of in the scriptures in reference to human 
salvation, as the death and sufferings of no other being are 
spoken of; and that the full meaning of these passages cannot 

• Paley's Works Vol. IV. Sermon XXIII passim. 

5 



34 

be satisfied without supposing, that these sufferings and death 
had a real and essential effect in procuring that salvation." 
It is not my purpose to inquire into the accuracy or complete- 
ness of this statement. Granting that it is a correct repre- 
sentation of what the scriptures teach on this subject, aud of 
all that they clearly teach, it would follow, from what is re- 
marked in the preceding paragraph, that we are not at liberty 
to declare from our own conjectures, or from a very few 
and obscure texts of scripture, in what the efficacy of our 
Lord's death consists, or why so great a sacrifice was necessary 
for the remission of sins. These are the secret things, which 
belong unto the Lord our God ; and it is those things only 
which arc revealed, which belong unto us. 

In the application to the interpretation of the Bible of these 
principles with regard to the office of reason, which I have 
now endeavoured to illustrate, there is need, I confess, of 
great caution; but also of great fidelity. They can never lead 
us to reject a single article clearly revealed there, as an article 
of Christian faith. They can never teach us to say, that the 
scriptures err ; but they may and will sometimes lead us to 
suspend our belief in the correctness of our own researches into 
the scriptures, or to say, that we do not at once understand a 
particular passage, or that some interpretation different from 
the obvious and literal one is the true meaning. If then, in 
the study of the scriptures, we should find any thing apparently 
self-contradictory and unintelligible, we ought to suppose the 
defect to be in us, not in them. A longer study will show us, 
that the- difficulty was only apparent. But if this apparent 
contradiction should still remain after all our inquiries, it is 
surely better to suppose, that we misunderstand the scriptures, 
than that they are unworthy of God. 

Every Protestant of every sect acknowledges these truths, 
and acts upon them with more or less consistency. On what 
grounds, for example, do we all reject the doctrine of tran- 
substautiation. The Catholick may produce to us the words 
of our Saviour: this is my body : and again: except ye eat 
the jksh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, ye have 
no life in you. It is not to be denied, that the plain and 



85 

literal meaning of all this is, that we do eat and drink in the 
Eucharist the actual body and blood of our Lord ; or as 
the Catholick has it, the body and blood of Almighty God 
himself. But all Protestants, with united voice, exclaim, 
that this interpretation is impossible; that it includes every 
kind of absurdity and contradiction, and that the reason, which 
God has given us, authorizes us to say, that no evidence could 
render such a doctrine credible. We proceed then to show, 
from other passages of scripture, as well as from its general 
strain and spirit, that the language of our Saviour in this case is 
merely a figure of speech authorized by the genius and idiom 
of the languages of the east. 

The zeal of some Christians, in vindicating the scriptures 
from the reproach of containing any doctrine inconsistent with 
reason, has undoubtedly sometimes led them to serious errours. 
But while we steadily discountenance a rash and intemperate 
criticism, we are bound not to despise too lightly their motives, 
which may be respectable, or their learning and talents, which 
may be great and splendid. We ought to be well assured, 
that there are no circumstances, which may have innocently 
led our brethren into what we esteem errour, and especially to 
be certain, that for doctrines, which we believe and they deny^ 
there can be adduced passages of scripture equally and more 
express and unequivocal, than those which the Catholick can 
cite for the belief of the actual presence. 

To the infidel, who triumphs in the belief, that the scrip- 
tures are so loose and indeterminate as to admit of opposite 
interpretations, I would briefly reply. It would be very 
strange, if books, like the scriptures, — of such high antiquity 
written in languages so unlike our own, and now no longer 
spoken, in countries too where habits, manners, taste, customs 
and opinions, so different from our own, prevailed — to say 
nothing of the difficulties produced by the modern and unau- 
thorized division of them into chapters and verses — it would 
indeed be strange, if such books should be as easy of compre- 
hension in every part, as if they were written in our own 
country, and in our vernacular tongue. The only inference. 



36 

which can be admitted as a legitimate and necessary one from 
the fact of the differences among serious and intelligent 
Christians is simply this : that the doctrines in question be- 
tween them can constitute no essential part of Christianity. 

The difficulties in the interpretation of the New Testament 
are chiefly found in the epistles of St. Paul. On the causes of 
this peculiar obscurity in his writings, I beg leave to refer to 
a sermon on this subject by my ever-lamented friendi the late 
Rev. J. S. Buckminster.— Before it is concluded, that the 
epistles do not admit of a perfectly consistent and rational 
interpretation, the comments of Grotius and Locke should be 
diligently studied. I refer to these great men the more readily, 
because, as laymen, they were exempt from any professional 
bias, and because their competency to these inquiries is above 
all question, 



E. 

<i You may have observed, that persons, in attributing fana- 
ticism to evangelical teachers, often fix on the phrases, more 
than the absolute substance of evangelical doctrines. Now 
would it not be better to show them what these doctrines are, 
as divested of these phrases, and exhibited clearly in that vehi- 
cle, in which other important truths are presented, and thus at 
least to repress their scorn ? If sometimes their approbation 
might be gained, it were a still more desirable effect. Per- 
sons, who had received unfavourable impressions of some of the 
peculiar ideas of the gospel, from having heard them advanced 
almost exclusively in the modes of phrase on which I have 
remarked, have acknowledged their prejudices to be diminish- 
ed, after these ideas had been presented in the simple general 
language of intellect. We cannot indeed so far forget the 
lessons of experience, and the inspired declarations concerning 
the dispositions of the human mind, as to expect that any im- 
provement in the mode of exhibiting christian truth will render 
it irresistible. But it were to be wished, that every thing should 
be done to bring reluctant minds into some degree of doubt, at 



37 

least, whether if they cannot be evangelical, it is because they 
are too rational." Foster's Essays, p. 210, 2d Am. edition* 

F. 

I fear I shall grieve some excellent persons, when I say, 
that I here allude to the Westminster Assembly's Catechism. 
It will be observed, however, that these remarks do not deny, 
that this compend has various and great merits, for the time, 
when it was made ; but are merely intended to suggest the inqui- 
ry, whether it ought to be considered as the final result of all 
that the human mind can do, in stating the doctrines of our 
religion. Unless it have this perfection, it cannot be right to 
speak of it as the standard by which " to try all doctrines ;" 
to use it as the text of sermons and to teach it to young and 
old, as if it were an inspired digest of the scriptures themselves. 
I make these observations with the more confidence, since 
this catechism is confessedly so imperfect, that the General 
Association of this state, composed of ministers, who appro- 
priate to themselves the name of orthodox, cannot be brought 
to subscribe this instrument without the qualifying clause, that 
they receive it only "for substance.** When, in addition to 
this, it is considered, that this work, after all, contains nothing 
more than the sentiments of the majority of a body of men, in 
an age not otherwise thought to be very enlightened, with no 
peculiar exemption from errour, and certainly under many very 
great disadvantages for calm and dispassionate judgment, it will 
not be considered as a forfeiture of one's Christianity to believe, 
that some of its doctrines may now be stated in a manner more 
conformable to the improvement of biblical science and the 
general progress of the human mind. 

It is almost needless to observe, that the comparison sug- 
gested in the text is not meant to extend farther than to imply, 
that, as times of extraordinary excitement and contention con- 
cerning the principles of government are evidently unfavoura- 
ble to wise decisions in politicks, a season of similar excite- 
ment, with regard to religious, as well as political opinions, 
cannot be the most friendly to the best decisions on points of 
theology. 



38 



G. 



The distinction between what is practical and what is specu- 
lative in these subjects is a very clear one. Take for example the 
discussion relating to the sinfulness of the human heart. The 
gospel addresses all mankind as sinners; it takes it for granted, 
that there are deep and powerful, and, if indulged, ruinous 
tendencies to evil in the human breast. There is no dispute on 
this fact. All christians believe it. But what is the method, 
■which the New Testament takes to convince us of this truth ? 
Is it by dissertations on the origin of sin, or the manner in 
which it was introduced into our constitution ? or by showing 
that these propensities to evil have no antagonist principles 
within us, but that we are called on, at the peril of our sal- 
vation, to contend against them without arms and without 
strength? 1 appeal to the unprejudiced readers of this sacred 
volume to say, that this is not the mode in which our Lord or 
his apostles address mankind. No : They think it enough to 
call upon every man to look honestly and humbly into his own 
character, to compare himself with God's law, and to let con- 
science be faithful to its office. No man, who does not in- 
stantly perceive, after such an examination, thatm many things 
he offends daily, and in all comes short of the glory of God, 
will ever be convinced of this fact by ten thousand arguments 
relating to original and imputed sin. A man can be humbled 
for no sin, can repent of no sin, can be converted from no sin, 
till he is made conscious, that he is personally guilty of it-— • 
on the facts of the case, of the sinfulness of the human heart, 
there can never be any doubt or dispute, in individual instances, 
among serious and honest men. A similar practical agrees 
ment, I apprehend, might be shown with regard to all the doc- 
trines, to which I refer in this part of the discourse. 

It will be remarked, that I have no where meant to imply, 
that the christians, whose sentiments I defend, have no opi- 
nions on these speculative questions; or that they entirely 
agree in their judgments upon them; or that they attach 
no importance to the different sentiments, which are embraced 



39 

with respect to them. Undoubtedly among all thinking 
men there will be Tarying opinions on all these difficult 
points ; and there are not a few persons, whose claims to 
the name of truly liberal as well as learned divines are not to 
be disputed, whose views on some of these questions approach 
towards those, which are embraced by christians of the most 
rigid and exclusive character. The only point, in which they 
would all agree is, in saying, that those practical principles, 
in which all christians unite, are of higher authority and 
weightier importance than our metaphysical speculations can 
be ; and in declining therefore to make a man's opinions with 
regard to any of these disputed points the test of his christian 
character or the term of christian and ministerial communion 
with him. 

H. 

It is with religion, as it is with morals, nothing can be more 
plain than its practice, nothing more difficult than many parts 
of its theory. This, it should 6eem, ought to lead a christian 
teacher to the same course, which a judicious moralist pursues. 
Who, that was desirous of impressing on mankind at large the 
practice of the virtues of benevolence or gratitude, would 
think of discussing before a miscellaneous audience the contro- 
versy with regard to the origin of our moral ideas, and con- 
tending either for the theory of Cud worth, or Hutcheson, or 
Butler, or Price? Would he not rather appeal at once to our 
sense of right and wrong, and call us to read those sacred and 
indelible characters, in which God has written the obligation 
of these virtues on the human heart? — These different theories 
are, no doubt, in a philosophical point of view of great mo- 
ment. But whether he embraces the one or the other of them, 
does not every wise and good man acknowledge the supreme 
authority and importance of those facts-) in which all good men 
agree, and allow that his ultimate appeal must always be made 
to the universal moral sentiments and emotions of the human 
rac^? " Fortunately for mankind," says Mr. Stewart, " the 
great rules of a virtuous conduct are confessedly of such a 
nature, as to be obvious to every sincere and well disposed 



40 

mind. And it is in a peculiar degree striking, that, while the 
theory ofethicks involves some of the most abstruse questions, 
which have ever employed the human faculties, the moral judg- 
ments and moral feelings of the most distant ages and nations 
with respect to all the most essential duties of life are one and 
the same." Philosophy of the Mind, Vol. II. p. 392 — 3. 
Bost. edit. 

I. 

To avoid the possibility of misconstruction, I wish to repeat, 
that by the moral influence of the gospel is meant its influence 
in the production of inward, as well as external obedience; the 
holiness both of the heart and the life. " Repentance towards 
God" of course must stand in the foremost rank of christian 
duties; and u faith in our Lord Jesus Christ" must be the 
origin, motive, principle, of that reformation, which is always 
included in the u repentance, which is unto salvation." In 
like manner, all of what are called the " doctrines" of the 
gospel are, in our view of the subject, included under its 
motives. There is no value in the mere belief of any of them, 
except so far as that belief operates on us u in overcoming the 
world," in u purifying the heart," and inducing " newness of 
life and new obedience." 

There is, perhaps, no one principle of such primary impor- 
tance, both to the theological inquirer and the practical chris- 
tian, as that this moral influence of the gospel is its great and 
ultimate design, as far as it respects man. It is that grand 
and luminous truth, around which all the other truths of the 
religious system arrange themselves, and from which they 
derive all their lustre and all their value to man. It is a prin- 
ciple attended with a plenitude and clearness of evidence, which 
no other possesses. Any thing really inconsistent with it, we 
may be sure must be false. Tout ce qui tend a i'immoralite 
'n'est jamais qu'un sophisme. Let any one, who doubts the 
extent and importance of this principle, attempt to state to 
himself any other end of the christian revelation, than to fit 
men for heaven by making them good, and he will at once 
see, that he can assign no one, which must not ultimately be 



41 

resolved into this. Who indeed can have any doubt on this 
point, who considers how distinctly it is declared, that the 
ultimate end of the death of our Saviour himself is its moral 
influence on his disciples. " And this we are assured of,'* 
saith Bp. Fowler, " by abundance of express scriptures, some 
few of which we will here produce:" 

Rom vi. 6. Knowing this, (hat our old man is crucified with 
him, that the body of sin might be destroyed, that henceforth 
we should not serve him. 

2 Cor. v. 15. He died for all, that they which live should 
not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him that died 
for them and rose again. 

Gal. i. 4. Who gave himself for our sins, that he might delu 
ver us from this present evil world (viz. from its corrupt prac- 
tices) according to the will of God and our Father, 

Ephes. v. 25, 26, 27. Christ loved the church and gave him- 
self for it, that he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washm 
ing of water by the word, that he might present it unto hinu 
self a glorious church, not having spot or wrinkle^ or any 
such thing ; but that it should be holy and without blemish. 

Colos. i. 21, 22. And you that were sometime alienated and 
enemies in your minds by wicked works, hath he now reconciled 
in the body of his ilesh through death to present you holy un. 
blamable and unreprovable in his sight. 

Titus, ii. 14. Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem 
us from all iniquity and purify to himself a peculiar people, 
zealous of good zvorks. 

1 Peter, i. 18. For as much as ye know that ye were not 
redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and go\d,from your 
vain conversation received by tradition from your fathers ; 
but with the precious blood of Christ, a lamb without'blemish 
and without spot. 

i Peter, iii. 18. For Christ also once suffered for sins, the 
just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, &c. That 
is, saith Calvin upon the place, that we might be so consecrated 
to God as to live and die to him. 

1 Peter, ii. 24. Who his own self bare our sins in his own 
body on the tree, that we being dead to sin should live to 

6 



43 

righteousness ; by whose stripes ye were healed. Design of 
Christianity, by Bp. Fowler, apud Watson Theological 
Tracts, toI. vi. 339, 340. 

K. 

The following chronological memoranda may perhaps be 
valued by the members of the New South Society. 

First meeting on record tor the formation of the society, July 
14,1715. New House dedicated : sermons by Dr. Cotton Ma- 
ther and Rev. Benjamin Wadsworth, January 8, 1716. Church 
covenant signed, and the Rev. Samuel Checkley ordained Pastor, 
April 15, 1719. Rev. Penuel Bowen ordained colleague 
Pastor, April 30, 1766. Rev. Joseph Howe ordained Pastor, 
May 19, 1773. Rev. Oliver Everett, do. January 2, 1782. 
Rev. John Thornton Kirkland, do. February 5, 1794. In- 
ducted President of Harvard College, November 3, 1810. 
Present Pastor ordained, May 15, 1811. Old house taken 
down, April, 1814. New house dedicated, Dec. 29, 1814. 



I subjoin at the request of some highly valued friends the 
following description of the New House, which first appeared 
in the publick papers. 

THE NEW STONE CHURCH. 

The new Church on Church-green, at the easterly end of 
Summer street, is built of the best Chelmsford granite, and of 
the following dimensions. The body of the building is octa- 
gonal, formed in a square of seventy-six feet diameter: four 
sides being forty-seven feet, and four smaller sides twenty feet 
each. Three large windows are in two of the principal sides, 
and one in each of the angles and in the rear. The height from 
the ground is thirty-four feet, and finished with a Dorick cor- 
nice of bold projection. The porch is of equal extent with 



43 

one of the sides, and advances sixteen feet, in front of which is 
a portico of four fluted columns of Grecian Dorick ; this por- 
tico is crowned with a pediment, surmounted by a plain Attick. 
A tower rises from the centre of the attick which includes the 
belfry. The first story of the steeple is an octagon, surround- 
ed by eight columns, with a circular pedestal and entablature ; 
an attick above this gradually diminishing by three steps or 
gradins, supports a second range of Corinthian columns, with 
entablature and balustrade; hence the ascent, in a gradual 
diminution, forms the base of the spire, crowned with a ball 
and vane. The entire height is one hundred and ninety feet. 

Inside of the house, the ceiling is supported by four Ionick 
columns, connected above their entablature by four arches of 
moderate elevation ; in the angles, pendants or fans rise to 
form a circular flat ceiling, decorated with a centre flower : be- 
tween the arches and the walls are groins springing from the 
cornice, supported by Ionick pilasters between the windows. 
The galleries rest upon small columns, and are finished in front 
with balustrades. The pulpit is richly built of mahogany, 
supported by Ionick and Corinthian columns. The floor of 
the house contains one hundred and eighteen pews, and the gal- 
leries thirty-two, besides the organ loft and seats for the 
orphan children of the Female Asylum. 

In constructing this house, an attempt has been made to 
unite the massive simplicity of the Grecian temple, with the 
conveniences of a christian church. The bo*d proportions of 
the portico, cornices, and windows, and the simplicity of the 
Attick, give the impression of classical antiquity; while the 
tower and steeple, inventions of comparatively modern date, 
harmonize more agreeably with the antique architecture, than is 
usual, where such different styles are blended. It is but jus- 
tice to say, that this splendid temple does the highest honour to 
the taste and science of the architect, Charles Bulfinch, Esq. 
as well as of the committee, under whose superintendence it has 
been planned and built, viz. Jonathan HuuneweH, George G. 
Lee, John Dorr, Stephen Higginson, and John Cotton, 
Esquires. 



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